Birmingham County FA: influencing emissions reduction

"We should be looking at ways to use the game to promote environmental sustainability," says Richard Lindsay, sustainability and business insights manager for BCFA. 

The BCFA team understand that, while grassroots football is not the cause of climate change, it offers huge potential for engagement as people tend to share a close affinity with the community club.

This focus on environmental sustainability gradually evolved, with the Covid-19 lockdowns allowing the team time to research and develop their thinking.

In 2021, the ‘Save Today, Play Tomorrow’ programme was created – effectively a ‘sustainability in a box’ for football clubs of any size to pick up and run with.

The aim of Save Today, Play Tomorrow is to upskill, educate and empower participants to decarbonise the grassroots game, providing footballers with a fundamental understanding of the climate crisis and its impact on football, as well as the impact of football on the climate crisis. 

Save Today, Play Tomorrow presents three pillars of resources for clubs to engage with, following the traditional ‘triple bottom line’ or ‘ESG – Environmental, Social, Governance’ model: climate action, social impact, and financial stability.

Save Today, Play Tomorrow defines a 'total sustainable sports club' as one that is environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable.  

The BCFA team understand that the main barriers to local, volunteer-led clubs implementing environmental sustainability actions are understanding where to start and the anticipated costs.  

The Save Today, Play Tomorrow programme provides a clear, easy and accessible place for clubs to go to find out where and how to start. Recently, the BCFA team opened the Save Today, Play Tomorrow programme resources for anyone, from any sport to use.  

The BCFA team have also created a ringfenced ‘Green Innovation Fund’ of £25,000 per year for clubs to apply for green project funding (up to £750 each).

The team have seen the ambitions of the funded projects increase year on year as clubs build their understanding of the climate crisis and their impact.  

The BCFA team have managed to reduce their operational emissions by 37% over three years, through reduction actions including:  

• Installed energy-efficient heating and lighting. 
• Installed solar panels on their main building. 
• Switched waste contractors to focus on recycling and zero waste to landfill. 
• Moved to digital programmes for all major events and cup finals. 
• Installed two electric vehicle chargers. 
• Calculated their operational carbon footprint. 
• Provided carbon literacy training for employees. 

Of the 15 annual finals events, 10 are hosted at the BCFA home ground, where the team can easily encourage and influence positive environmental behaviour change; for example, only allowing cars used for car-pooling to park in the main car park.

In 2023, the team collected carbon data from all County Cup finals games. This included event data on building energy use, travel from all groups (teams, match officials, spectators, backroom staff, and volunteers), waste generated and food sold.

Using this data, the BCFA worked with Planet Mark to calculate the 2023 County Cup finals events' carbon footprint, set carbon reduction goals, and pay for offsets to achieve ‘carbon neutrality in line with the guidelines of PAS2060:2014.’

The carbon footprint for the 2023 County Cup finals events was 106 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). The two highest sources of emissions (‘carbon hotspots’) for the 2023 County Cup finals games were: 

1. Travel by private car (85%).  
2. Food and beverages sold (13%).  

Based on these findings, BCFA set the following carbon reduction goals:  

• Travel (this includes participants, venue staff and supporters): Reduce the number of single occupancy journeys to the 15 cup finals by 50%. 
• Food and beverages sold: Gather 100% accurate data of all food and beverage sales at each venue. 
• Building utilities: Reduce electricity, gas, and water consumption across all venues by 10%. 

By calculating the carbon emissions from their events, the BCFA are upskilling and building their own understanding of event ‘carbon hotpots.’ This enables targeted action and further knowledge sharing to the wider Save Today, Play Tomorrow community.   

This has provided many new opportunities for the organisation, including being featured in a Sky Sports documentary as well as unlocking new funding opportunities.  

Recently, the BFCA team won The Kings Award for Enterprise, Social Development. The award stated that the BFCA “has an exemplary, pro-active approach to seeking carbon reductions both for its  own activities and for running wide-ranging and far-sighted sustainability initiatives for its member clubs and their individual members.” 

The BCFA team mention that there has been some backlash from a few people who think that the FA should focus on football only.

However, the team understand that football’s viability relies on looking after our environment and protecting our facilities and places, and that 80% of their membership want to be more sustainable. 

Through the Save Today, Play Tomorrow programme, the BCFA team wanted to create a blueprint for other County FAs and any other sporting organisations to follow, appreciating that many tend to be smaller and more resource-constrained.